Someone stop me

[KaiserSoze]

AHHHHHH!!!
I have a problem.  I've spent almost $600 on pedals in the last three weeks.  JHS Twin Twelve, Wampler Velvet Fuzz, and yesterday an Earthquaker Devices Depths. 

Is this just because I've tweaked my two Warmoth builds just the way I want and now have to have something else to obsess over???  Is it wrong to watch Youtube videos of pedal demos at work??  Is there some kind of support group for this, because you all aren't helping...

 

[mayfly]

ok - I know the cure.  Learn 10 of your favourite guitar solos.  Then practice them waaaay slowed down with a metronome.  Then record yourself doing it.  Then listen 

If it works out right you'll end up in a cycle of endlessly trying to improve your playing and the gear will become secondary (which is what it's supposed to be anyway)  :headbang1:

 

[fdesalvo]

DUDE same boat.  New W build?  Why, that means I need a new pedal board, amp, and pedals!  Here's what I've got cookin':

Dunlop DVP-1
JHS Morning Glory
Dr Scientist The Elements
Plexitone V2
Mad Professor Deep Blue Delay, handwired
Diamond Memory Lane Jr
Earthquaker Dvices Afterneath
TC Electronics HOF Mini
Hardwire Supernatural
Boss TU-3
Pedaltrain Metro24

Gonna sell the Plexitone V2, Dr Scientist, and the Hardwire soon.  ccasion14:

 

[Kostas]

Nothing wrong with a few pedals. Even more than few...

 

[MikeW]

When things get really crazy, you wind up investing in a G-System or a POD-HD500 or an Eleven Rack or an Axe-FX and have (literally) dozens of effects at the touch of a button. Plus MIDI, and configurable external loops, and on and on and on...

ok - I know the cure.  Learn 10 of your favourite guitar solos.  Then practice them waaaay slowed down with a metronome.  Then record yourself doing it.  Then listen 

If it works out right you'll end up in a cycle of endlessly trying to improve your playing and the gear will become secondary (which is what it's supposed to be anyway)  :headbang1:

This is really the answer though.

Welcome to the club KS!

 

[QuasarQuail]

The struggle is real...

In all seriousness, when I start getting too hung up on pedals, I know it's time to unplug all pedals, place them far out of reach, and start playing totally dry. It's a good reminder that although pedals are a blast, a plain old electric guitar sound always sounds killer.

 

[Jet-Jaguar]

Is it wrong to watch Youtube videos of pedal demos at work?? 

Honestly, I think this is a problem.  You can't play guitar at work (or at least most people can't, if it's a normal day-job) so you have YouTube videos in the background.  Which, of course,  makes you want to buy the pedals, unless the guys in the demos can't play.

 

[stratamania]

I don't use that many pedals but at the moment I'm planning on gradually getting a few more. Next up could be a Univibe.

 

[QuasarQuail]

Love this thread. It's like a Gamblers Anonymous meeting in which everyone in the circle is pretty much saying, "Yeah, go ahead, lose your ass, it'll be a hell of a ride!"

 

[Kostas]

...it'll be a hell of a ride!"

It is a hell of a ride!!! I play guitar 26 years and I bought 90% of my pedals in two years! I don't regret it, I have what I always wanted and I knew when to stop. I also know I will NEVER go the AxeFX way (or anything similar) as I can't stand programmable units and menus. I know because I've tried it. My pedals as my guitars are keepers. It's not just the sound, I like tweaking the knobs as much as I like tweaking an analogue console or my HiFi system.

By the way, unless you are a vintage freak and you think the 50's where the golden age of guitars, we are lucky to be able to choose between so many amazing pedals for every budget. It is fashionable these days to consider Boss the amazing pedal company but I don't want to return to the early 90's where all I could find locally were Boss & DOD. Nothing fun about it.

 

[BigSteve22]

As long as you can pay the rent and bills, and your family ain't going hungry, buy what you want! (Don't tell my wife I said that....)

 

[alterbridgefan]

Earthquaker Organizer, greyscale hellcat, and a custom two in one make up my pedal purchases over the past couple weeks.

So yeah, feel ya. Now that I'm almost happy with my pedals, I want a new amp... And to ice the cake, I've been carefully eyeing C&C Drums again. Ugh.

Yeah, that struggle.

 

[mrpinter]

I can relate too. I might be a little bit overboard, but I really enjoy the process/hobby. Relative to other interests I've had over the years - like mechanical wristwatches - pedals are pretty affordable. What I did was to finally get what I thought was the perfect board for a certain guitar, or style, or whatever. And I didn't want to keep changing things on that board since I was happy with it. So my solution is to build more boards, for different guitars/amps/moods/music styles. I'm up to five boards now and I'm loving it. If I'm in a funky R&B mood I'll pick by Nano with the Boss compressor, and Earthquaker Devices overdrive and phaser. If I want pretty sounds, I'll hook up to the one with the EQD chorus and Ghost Echo reverb; or the one with the EQD Organizer, vintage Boss DC-2 and Hughes & Kettner Tube Rotosphere included on it (my stereo board). I even have a board made specially for my Baggs-equipped acoustic. So I'm having fun.

 

[KaiserSoze]

Okay, I think I can stop for a while.  Current signal path is:

Killer Warmoth guitar>Polytune>Wampler Velvet Fuzz>JHS Twin Twelve>Catalinbread 5F6>Wampler Plexi Drive>Alter Ego Delay>Depths Vibe>modified Peavey Delta Blues.

I hope that holds me for a while….I'm out of room anyway.

 

[MikeW]

Have you tried putting the delay and vibe in the effects loop? Highly recommended!

 

[stubhead]

Yeah I gotta go with Mr. Fly. Learn a new song (poorly) every day for a week; then go back and start picking apart the solos, especially the IDEAS behind the solos. How's the ol' reading? Consider that EVERYTHING you need to know to play this is all written down just a-waiting your brain & fingers:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cguGudP0BKY

You can even track down free tab, if that floats your boat (I discourage students here, working OUT the fingerings is a lot of the EXTRA stuff you're learning without knowing you're learning something). Although Gilbert learns them by ear, because he thinks it's good for him. My idiot students invariably, always, EVERY one of them, start in with this "wal mah memo-ree isn't good enough to..."

SCREECH! SHUT the F up!
Play your friggin' guitar with a tiny little sense of seriousness for 5 years and you will have a GREAT memory! THAT'S WHERE IT COMES FROM.... ummm, remembering stuff?  :tard: If you're a 13-year-old idiot, just DON'T choose to be a 20-year-old-idiot. All this coming from a grommet who can spend 18 hours and score 10-billion-plus points blowing up the Pope's head on the "Vatican - House of Eeeee-vil" video game.

Consider: thousands upon thousands of little nine-year-old girls can play this stuff flawlessly on a violin.... the shame....  :icon_jokercolor: :evil4: :toothy12:

 

[KaiserSoze]

Have you tried putting the delay and vibe in the effects loop? Highly recommended!

I did try that with both.  I found that in the loop they are clearer and more distinct, which didn't sound as good to me for my purposes.  Putting them in front softened the edges a bit and the effect seems to mix into the sound rather than dominate it.  I don't use either the delay or the vibe on extreme settings so this works better for me.  Good tip though.

I'm enjoying the "Pedals vs Practice" debate going on.  I have a pretty decent practice habit but a short attention span, so some fresh sounds that can inspire me to learn something new musically are always welcome.  Plus its a lot of fun, which is the whole point for a mid-forties rock guitar escapist anyway.  It's also fun to bring something new to band practice with my fellow forty-somethings...   

 

[Cagey]

It's good to hear that someone else doesn't crank their time-based effects until they sound like some kind of cheesy low-budget '50s Sci-Fi flick.

The purpose of those effects is to re-create the sound of larger room, not confuse your pets or blur your playing. Subtlety is key. I've never been able to figure out why the equipment designers give them the range that they do. You could be all on your own at Cobo Hall when it's empty and not get as much reverberation and delay as many effects provide for. What are they trying to reproduce? An underwater granite cave 2 miles in diameter with a mile high ceiling?

 

[jmcecil]

I'm out of room anyway.

:tard:I could get 3 more pedals on that board ... 4 if they were micros.

 

[bagman67]

I've never been able to figure out why the equipment designers give them the range that they do.

I think the marketing weenies at the gear manufacturers who drive the product designs know full well that a substantial fraction of the gear-buying public is just foolin' around at home, not playing well-mixed gigs nor recording subtle and masterful tracks.  And making weird noises is fun for that crowd - a significant reason for the doing, in fact, for some.  Plus there's always the "Better to have it and not need it, than the other way around" thing in play.  So - yes, you can sound like you're playing guitar in a space with physical characteristics that don't occur in nature for the same reason a dog licks its 'nads - because (a) it can, and (b) it -- presumably -- is fun.